All things musical

Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

READ: Music in the provinces

After reading a thinkpiece earlier this week called 'Creative Darwinism' about making music outside of cultural capitals and how it can make for more original and passionate music, I decided I would spend my last blog celebrating music from provincial New Zealand.

I grew up in Whanganui in the mid-2000s, a city (only just) most touring musicians shied away from, given the tumbleweeds rolling down the main street after 5pm, or 2pm on Saturdays. Our saving grace was a room in someone's flat where they had installed a lighting rig and PA. It was called the Eye of Night and it was the best. We went to every show there that our parents would let us, usually one every couple of months, and I saw bands that would become my favourites for years to come. And I learnt something that I wasn't expecting, that the local openers were often more interesting and better performers than the touring act from ~Melbourne~ or ~Nashville~ or ~Auckland~.

INTERVIEW: Centre Negative

Michael McClelland has been a active and productive fixture of the NZ indie music scene for the past few years, playing in bands (Team Ugly, Centre Negative), writing for the Corner (rip), booking tours for local and international acts as Michael McClelland Taxi Services (also the name of his one-person taxi/comedy operation) and facilitating the growth of Christchurch based record label Melted Ice Cream. His solo project turned 6-12 member lo-fi orchestra Centre Negative are to tour Australia next week.

Warning: the following album contains lo-fidelity, profanity, serious riffs but also important social critiques.

TINKERING!!! THE ART OF ENGINEERING SOUNDS

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PEDALS!!!!!!! - YAY!!!!!! I'll never forget the first time I used a guitar pedal, it was some sort of cheap overdrive pedal, I couldn't believe how all of a sudden, all those Nirvana riffs I had learnt suddenly sounded like KC himself! (SLAYER)

Over the years I have played around with many different types of pedals and its gotten to the point where I've started experimenting with effects on the recording end of things, just coz its fun to play around with different types of sounds. Recently I've started thinking about making my own pedals, mainly because some of the pedals that I want are super expensive, but also because I'm starting to chase a sound that only exists inside my head. I've never played around with circuit boards before and I only just found out what a schematic diagram is, so I thought I should probably talk to someone about it before I end up making a Frankenstein. This week I talk to Ruban Nielson from Unknown Mortal Orchestra a bit about tinkering and engineering sounds.

How long have you been tinkering?

I've been messing around with electronics for about 4 years. I didn't know anything about it when I started. I wanted to change some pickups in my guitar and I was sick of sending it away. I need my guitar so I didn't want to wait for it so I got a screwdriver and just opened it up. I went to radioshack and got a soldering iron and just started. The first thing I did was I made a mess of my guitar and had to send it to a guitar tech anyway haha I actually knew nothing about what I was doing but that's how I do things usually. Jump in and make a fool of myself until I get somewhere with it. I just kept going and got better at it and deeper into it.

Why did you start building pedals?

When I was in the Mint Chicks I used to paint my pedals so you couldn't see what they were, and because I thought they looked cooler like that, all hand-painted. I was an assistant for an abstract painter and used to build and help paint metal panels for him so painting my pedals just kind of happened coz I was always painting back then. One day someone said to me at a show "did you make them?" and it never occurred to me that I could make my own pedals. The idea stuck in my head and I really wanted to actually build some or modify them.